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jadedmusingsOver Christmas weekend, I re-watched Supernatural season five, the DVD set of which Mom got me as a gift. (I'd tried to buy it back in September when it was released, but I wound up buying NCIS season seven first, and then I couldn't find Supernatural ever again around here. I did manage to see it on my TOTALLY LEGAL I SWEAR! downloaded episodes on my computer, but I have all the seasons on DVD and I like being a completionist of sorts.)
Oh, friends' list, it made me realize how bad season six has been. Granted, I haven't seen the most recent two episodes of Supernatural (something I'm remedying tonight or tomorrow), but the writing was so much better in season five than it is now, and more importantly, things happened. There's also the fact that right up until the last two seconds of the final episode of season five ("Swan Song"), it's painfully obvious that Kripke intended for this to be it. It doesn't get anymore blatant than Chuck sitting at his computer sort of narrating the episode and saying "This is how it ends" for pretty-much the full hour. [Spoiler]'s reappearance at the very, very end of the episode? Obviously written in after the eleventh-hour renewal when CW decided to go for a sixth season.
But, whatever. Can I focus on how amazing season five was?
Obviously, there are some glaring issues to be had with season five. Supernatural has a horrible track record when it comes to female characters and it continues with this season. The deaths of Ellen and Jo this season angered me like nothing else and I'm still wondering what purpose those deaths served considering Dean had all but forgotten about Jo two episodes later. Granted, he had the Apocalypse to deal with, but really? It just wound up coming across as nothing more than a hit below the belt for the sake of being a hit below the belt. Yeah, yeah I've fussed about all this before and I will again, so let's go on with what it got right.
I think the biggest and most heart-wrenching reveal came in "Dark Side of the Moon." For much of the season at that point Castiel had been searching for God, who'd been Missing In Action for quite some time. In "Dark Side of the Moon," Castiel manages to get to Sam and Dean while they're behind the curtain in heaven and guides them to meet Joshua, the gardner whom God still likes to speak with on occasion. In the last five minutes or so of the episode, after getting to see Ash and Pamela again (totally awesome, by the way) and dodging Zacharia, Joshua gives Dean and Sam a message from God: I'm tired of it all and I just don't care anymore.
While God effecitively telling the brothers and Castiel to piss off was angering, it was angering in the sense that I felt so bad for them rather than me shaking my fist at the writers. It was a powerful scene and, I think, a very gutsy move on the parts of the writers. Granted, Supernatural has never been any sort of touch-feely God/Life is Awesome sort of show, but to flat-out say that God isn't manning the helm and doesn't give a fuck that his children (the angels) are destroying his creation(s) isn't something that you find in network television. I can only think of the hate mail it possibly generated given the religious climate in America. Then again, Supernatural is probably supposed to be off-limits for those True Believers(TM) out there.
Maybe it's because when I was a teenager, shows like Touched By an Angel were extremely popular and it seems like no one ever wants to take on the angle that maybe, just maybe, God has left the building and is leaving us to our own devices, or they're afraid to address that possibility. Usually, even when dealing with some pretty heavy stuff, the message is "Everything happens for a reason" or "God has a plan we can't possibly fathom," and it always -- always comes with the additional "God is love" message. In Supernatural, God is just a plain old asshole and absent father with "a lot of excuses," according to Dean (who has finally ceased worshipping John so much, another character development I loved and thought was way overdue).
The argument could be made that the Apocalypse and everything that came with it was a test, which Chuck/God(?) somewhat admits to in his narration during "Swan Song," but I don't think that's it. I think God and Joshua were being honest. After several billion years, God is tired and he was prepared to let it all end, but in his wisdom he also left it up to chance. He let human free will and human strength play a hand in it by giving Sam the chance to overpower Lucifer. And if it were only a test and not due to the fact that God wants a vacation, why then did he not go back to heaven and set things right for season six? Why is Castiel cleaning up his father's gigantic mess and trying to keep his brothers from destroying themselves and all of heaven and earth with it?
The short of it is that I'm impressed with the way it was handled, and with just how powerful that bit of writing was as a whole.
Other things I loved:
1) Death. He's only around for one episode for roughly five minutes, but those five minutes were enough to make a lasting impression. That whole scene in Chicago was goddamned terrifying, especially when he tells Dean that one day God will die too. "Ponder your insignificance" indeed.
2) Dean. I mentioned already that I loved the fact that he's no longer worshipping John. He still loves him and still thinks of him as his own personal hero, but he's honest about it. John wasn't a great father and he made a hell of a lot of mistakes. In fact, John probably shouldn't have raised the boys at all. Seeing things play out between God and Castiel gave him an outsider's veiw on his own relationship with John. For the first time he saw his father through the eyes of an adult, ugly flaws and all.
3) Castiel. "I rebelled for this?" Castiel and Dean find they have a lot in common as the season plays out, and it was interesting to me that even though he had every reason to, he never truly gave up on Dean and Sam. He could have just let Dean say yes to Michael, but in spite of everything, he wouldn't give in. He still believed that even with his own father's abandonment of all of creation, he had to fight until the very end.
4) Crowley. I know, I know, he's a bastard and in season six I'm supposed to hate him for what he's doing to the boys (holding Sam's soul hostage, trying to hold onto Bobby's sould, etc.), but I can't help it. I love him and love everything about him. He's evil and he's everything a (now) ruler of hell should be. He's the one thing that I've found that's "right" with season six, which is high praise indeed.
I'll probably have more thoughts on this later. So far, however, I have to say that Supernatural is turning out a bit like Buffy the Vampire Slayer in that it really should have stopped at season five, but maybe after a crappy season six, they'll be able to pull off a passable season seven and bring a mostly satisfying end to the series. Or maybe season six will surprise me. There's still a chance and hope srpings eternal.
Oh, friends' list, it made me realize how bad season six has been. Granted, I haven't seen the most recent two episodes of Supernatural (something I'm remedying tonight or tomorrow), but the writing was so much better in season five than it is now, and more importantly, things happened. There's also the fact that right up until the last two seconds of the final episode of season five ("Swan Song"), it's painfully obvious that Kripke intended for this to be it. It doesn't get anymore blatant than Chuck sitting at his computer sort of narrating the episode and saying "This is how it ends" for pretty-much the full hour. [Spoiler]'s reappearance at the very, very end of the episode? Obviously written in after the eleventh-hour renewal when CW decided to go for a sixth season.
But, whatever. Can I focus on how amazing season five was?
Obviously, there are some glaring issues to be had with season five. Supernatural has a horrible track record when it comes to female characters and it continues with this season. The deaths of Ellen and Jo this season angered me like nothing else and I'm still wondering what purpose those deaths served considering Dean had all but forgotten about Jo two episodes later. Granted, he had the Apocalypse to deal with, but really? It just wound up coming across as nothing more than a hit below the belt for the sake of being a hit below the belt. Yeah, yeah I've fussed about all this before and I will again, so let's go on with what it got right.
I think the biggest and most heart-wrenching reveal came in "Dark Side of the Moon." For much of the season at that point Castiel had been searching for God, who'd been Missing In Action for quite some time. In "Dark Side of the Moon," Castiel manages to get to Sam and Dean while they're behind the curtain in heaven and guides them to meet Joshua, the gardner whom God still likes to speak with on occasion. In the last five minutes or so of the episode, after getting to see Ash and Pamela again (totally awesome, by the way) and dodging Zacharia, Joshua gives Dean and Sam a message from God: I'm tired of it all and I just don't care anymore.
While God effecitively telling the brothers and Castiel to piss off was angering, it was angering in the sense that I felt so bad for them rather than me shaking my fist at the writers. It was a powerful scene and, I think, a very gutsy move on the parts of the writers. Granted, Supernatural has never been any sort of touch-feely God/Life is Awesome sort of show, but to flat-out say that God isn't manning the helm and doesn't give a fuck that his children (the angels) are destroying his creation(s) isn't something that you find in network television. I can only think of the hate mail it possibly generated given the religious climate in America. Then again, Supernatural is probably supposed to be off-limits for those True Believers(TM) out there.
Maybe it's because when I was a teenager, shows like Touched By an Angel were extremely popular and it seems like no one ever wants to take on the angle that maybe, just maybe, God has left the building and is leaving us to our own devices, or they're afraid to address that possibility. Usually, even when dealing with some pretty heavy stuff, the message is "Everything happens for a reason" or "God has a plan we can't possibly fathom," and it always -- always comes with the additional "God is love" message. In Supernatural, God is just a plain old asshole and absent father with "a lot of excuses," according to Dean (who has finally ceased worshipping John so much, another character development I loved and thought was way overdue).
The argument could be made that the Apocalypse and everything that came with it was a test, which Chuck/God(?) somewhat admits to in his narration during "Swan Song," but I don't think that's it. I think God and Joshua were being honest. After several billion years, God is tired and he was prepared to let it all end, but in his wisdom he also left it up to chance. He let human free will and human strength play a hand in it by giving Sam the chance to overpower Lucifer. And if it were only a test and not due to the fact that God wants a vacation, why then did he not go back to heaven and set things right for season six? Why is Castiel cleaning up his father's gigantic mess and trying to keep his brothers from destroying themselves and all of heaven and earth with it?
The short of it is that I'm impressed with the way it was handled, and with just how powerful that bit of writing was as a whole.
Other things I loved:
1) Death. He's only around for one episode for roughly five minutes, but those five minutes were enough to make a lasting impression. That whole scene in Chicago was goddamned terrifying, especially when he tells Dean that one day God will die too. "Ponder your insignificance" indeed.
2) Dean. I mentioned already that I loved the fact that he's no longer worshipping John. He still loves him and still thinks of him as his own personal hero, but he's honest about it. John wasn't a great father and he made a hell of a lot of mistakes. In fact, John probably shouldn't have raised the boys at all. Seeing things play out between God and Castiel gave him an outsider's veiw on his own relationship with John. For the first time he saw his father through the eyes of an adult, ugly flaws and all.
3) Castiel. "I rebelled for this?" Castiel and Dean find they have a lot in common as the season plays out, and it was interesting to me that even though he had every reason to, he never truly gave up on Dean and Sam. He could have just let Dean say yes to Michael, but in spite of everything, he wouldn't give in. He still believed that even with his own father's abandonment of all of creation, he had to fight until the very end.
4) Crowley. I know, I know, he's a bastard and in season six I'm supposed to hate him for what he's doing to the boys (holding Sam's soul hostage, trying to hold onto Bobby's sould, etc.), but I can't help it. I love him and love everything about him. He's evil and he's everything a (now) ruler of hell should be. He's the one thing that I've found that's "right" with season six, which is high praise indeed.
I'll probably have more thoughts on this later. So far, however, I have to say that Supernatural is turning out a bit like Buffy the Vampire Slayer in that it really should have stopped at season five, but maybe after a crappy season six, they'll be able to pull off a passable season seven and bring a mostly satisfying end to the series. Or maybe season six will surprise me. There's still a chance and hope srpings eternal.
